Sheriff’s office seizes about 31.75 pounds of pot

BROOKSVILLE — Hernando County detectives seized almost 32 pounds of marijuana from a Brooksville home Thursday.

It was the second such confiscation in two days. On Tuesday, deputies reported finding 500 pounds of marijuana at a grow house at 1021 Edgehill Ave. in Spring Hill.

The latest seizure was from at a home at 2121 Culbreath Road in Brooksville. Two men, Leodermys Galdo Garcia, 27, and Pablo Estrada Morgado, 39, were arrested on various drug charges.

On Thursday, detectives from the Hernando County Vice and Narcotics Unit executed a search warrant at the home after being notified by Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative officials about a possible power diversion at the home.

Detectives knocked on the front door and made contact with Garcia and Morgado. Both men said they were from Cuba and did not speak English.

WREC officials then requested an escort onto the property to check the electric meter. The meter read a significantly smaller amp usage, indicating power diversion.

Detectives noted a strong odor of marijuana plants emanating from within an outbuilding on the property, a report said. The outbuilding was once Archie’s Shoe and Saddle Shop.

Archie’s was known for years for having Hernando County’s only batting cages for area youth league baseball players. The business has been closed for some time, but the structure remains.

Detectives said they found it gutted with make-shift rooms built to facilitate cultivation of marijuana.

A search of the property revealed three individual grow rooms with a total of 73 marijuana plants, deputies reported.

Two rooms had 18 plants each that were about eight feet tall. The third room had 37 marijuana plants about three feet tall, the sheriff’s report said.

Detectives seized 31.75 pounds of marijuana plants. They also found cultivation equipment and packaging.